Monday 28 May 2012

National Sprint Champs & New Eyes

In the past 3 months alots changed - the biggest was having my eyes lasered at short notice.  I went for a consultation and they said if I had it done it would mean no exercise for a week, no swimming for 2 weeks and no open water swimming for 4 weeks - so with 2 weeks until the open water started I decided to rush it through.  Great result on eyes - now naturally 2 lines better than 20/20 vision and the first 2 weeks of the OW season were c.11oC anyway so didnt miss much.  I did have a light training month in April though as a result.
In terms of races I've done since my Feb blog:
1.  F3 Olympic Duathlon (5km/40km/10km; February)

     My first duathlon, the race went well - got abit engrossed racing someone & nearly miscounted the 12 bike laps tho, but biggest learning was to push the first run harder.
Rank 16/48 (Overall)
Time  2:13:24     (Splits  20:05 / 00:55 / 1:11:31  /  00:43  /  40:08)
2.  Hart Sprint Triathlon (400m pool/20km/5km; May)

     My annual season opener, the weather was shocking with heavy rain but managed to knock nearly 3 minutes off last years time - tho last year they miscounted my swim so nearer -2 mins but still good.
Rank  36/370 (Overall)
Time:  1:09:33     (Splits  6:54  /  1:17  /  38:11  /  0:59  /  22:09)

3.  British Sprint Triathlon Championship / Worlds QF (750m swim/20k cycle/5k run; May)

And so onwards to the National Sprint Champs and Worlds qualifier at Emberton Park, Northants.  My aim for this was simple - put a marker in the ground against the best sprint distance triathletes in my AG (or so I'm told).  In terms of time I was looking for a sub 1:10 and to try and get within 115% of the AG winner.  After a 4am alarm, and heading NORTH on the M6 I finally arrived at 6.30.  Transition was unusually laid out alphabetically, but what surprised me more was the calls to clear transition at 7.10 when I was still getting sorted.  I've never know this before so flung everything onto my bike, grabbed my wetsuit and rapidly exited transition.  Luckily everything was fine later in the race.  Note to self tho - READ THE BRIEFING EMAIL.  I assume this would have been in there?  So anyway warmup involved a few short runs in my wetsuit?  Plus had to blag some freebie Powerbar gels that I was going to buy.

Swim (750m)

I was one of the first in and had a good warmup swim - the lake was a nice 15/16oC.  The start was a line along the bank - having watched the previous wave I went near the right to get the shortest line to buoy 1.  At 8am the alarm went and off we went - I quickly found a rhythm tho it was quite crowded with lots of people swimming all over each other.  However a pack had formed ahead and were breaking away - I was trying to catch them but getting nowhere near.  I did find the yellow swim caps of my wave were making the buoys hard to spot - might explain a few erratic swimmers zig zagging along. Nothing much to say about the swim - I lost focus and was paying more attention to my overall position than my stroke causing frustration.  I seemed way back in the field and as I climed out looked back to see less than I would have hoped behind me.  T1 went fine, I checked my watch at 14:30 so down abit on where I wanted.  On exit I tried to mount my bike slightly early but the Marshalls made themselves heard. 

Bike 20km

As I set off on the bike it was slightly disconcerting to see only about 2 people ahead of me as I hit the road. I tried to settle at a cadence of 90rpm and was going ok, but I'm naturally a chaser and having no one really ahead to go after was quite demoralising.  Soon others were starting to pass me...I counted 4 in the first 5km.  Then I hit a few hills and kept screwing up my gearing - I'd hit a climb, drop the front cog down, increase the back and end up spinning whilst losing momentum.  The hills kept on coming, just enough to disrupt momentum and soon I'd lost touch of the guys in front.  About halfway in the wave behind started coming past, at one point I was doing 23mph & this guy came past me like I was sitting still?  Alot of GB jerseys too, tho a couple of groups were blatently drafting whilst checking over their shoulder for marshalls.  If you're that good, I dont get it - but hey ho each to their own.  I managed to gulp down a gel for the run.  Anyway in summary the bike was disappointing - I averaged 19mph.  As I hit T2 the marshall shouted to me - I flapped, stopped and unclipped a shoe but he said carry on so clipped back in and carried on.  Otherwise T2 was fine...apart from my time which was now c.55 mins - I had been looking for c.50 to hit sub 1:10.

Run 5km

I set off and felt good on the run, so started to push it.  It was a nice run around the lake and mostly on the concrete. I was catching lots of people but they were all different waves - I just wanted to catch some F's in my AG and did towards the end.  I finally finished in a time of 1:14:29 and 53rd in my AG.

Reflections

I was expecting a flat bike course, so had I known the profile of the course I would have probably revised my target of 1:10 as being overly ambitious.  Initially I was disappointed as it hadn't felt like a race as I was out on my own alot - but on reflection maybe the time wasnt too bad for me, I was just up against a much stronger than avg field?  I kept trying to remind myself that this was the stake in the ground - but my disappointment was that the stake seemed alot further away than I would have liked.  I know for sure challenging for an AG spot isnt realistic on the training plan I'm currently on - but I know I can be far more competitive than I was.  Anyway on a cheery note, I loved the race, the weather was AMAZING and there was great banter as norm.  I LOVE triathlon -  no sport can match it for so many reasons. 

Positives

1.  The overall experience of racing a national champs / worlds qualifier.  It was a real eye opener.
2.  Transitions went smoothly
3.  It was a good gauge of where I am at - and what to work on

Learnings

1.  READ THE BRIEFING PACK - and if possible drive the bike course
2.  Need to throw the bike in the car more and do some hillwork
3.  Need to increase my swim volume to be competitive early on

Results
Results:  53/70 (AG)

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